The invention relates to the systems for controlling and managing the services offered by service providers to users.
The invention consists of a service control and management system coping in particular with the complexity of the situations existing in the field of home-services financed by social entities which can be numerous and of different natures (County or Federal Councils, Health Department, state-owned insurance companies, pension funds, independent funds, communities, etc.).
This sector encompasses numerous entities which may be of associative character, offering simultaneously to the sponsors or lessors and to the beneficiaries to organise the said on-site service while providing the said assistance personnel and while taking care of most administrative procedures. These entities may be working on behalf of several lessors linked with the Social Department, but they may also be paid by an individual.
This case is considered as a xe2x80x98multi-lessor and multi-providerxe2x80x99 scheme.
The system according to the invention has been designed in order to take into account this multi-lessor and multi-provider aspect.
The invention therefore provides a global information management system. The system is capable of processing simultaneously the pieces of information necessary to several lessors and to several providers each involving several providers. It guarantees the confidentiality or the said information while addressing to each actor exclusively the data relating to the said actor in order to ensure the control and the management of his/her file.
The system also enables to process the case when a provider (individual) working at a beneficiary""s premises is in fact providing a service considered as a State benefit (for instance a home help), then is working later in the day under another regime, this time sponsored by another lessor than the former (for instance a life auxiliary).
The system suggested enables to take into account the cases when a lessor mandates several service providing entities, the case when a service providing entity is mandated by several social lessors, the case when a (social) worker working under the responsibility of a service providing entity provides services of different natures, the cases when a beneficiary is allocated services of different natures.
According to an object of the invention, the system can suit any type of services provided on the site, subject to retribution for the service provider, or involving a check for the actual presence of a person by a supervising organisation.
The home services may be provided by a company, an association, a public or private entity, an individual, etc.
This service may take on different forms: home help, extra teaching, repairs, attendance, etc.
It may also be a service performed on a site which is not a person""s home but geographically different from the original home of the service provider (temporary work, maintenance, upkeep, warden, etc.).
The control system according to the invention adopts a neutral attitude as regards the nature of the service, the personnel entrusted with its performance, the entities affected by the said service, whether they are public or private-owned.
The system according to the invention is an on-site service management system which makes the administrative and control procedures easier. Its aim is to meet the concerns of the various parties involved in these on-site tasks:
the service sponsor, also called lessor, who wishes to check the sums allocated to the service for efficient usage,
the service provider who wishes to optimise the management of the personnel involved,
the beneficiary from the services who wishes an additional assistance in his/her administrative steps.
FIG. 1 represents the global scheme of the control system according to the invention, in which are represented schematically the different providers or entities involved in performing or processing a service, as well as the links among them.
One or several service lessors (B1, B2, . . . , Bn), possibly connected by a network, form a central structure. This central structure accommodates one or several servers, which run a software package implementing the control and management system according to the invention.
A number of service providing entities (P1, P2, . . . , Pm) are connected to one or several lessors (B1, B2, . . . , Bn) via telephone lines, the server and the network. A set of providers (I1, I2, . . . , Ik) is available to perform services for a number of beneficiaries (b1, b2, . . . , b1) to whom the respective lessors allocate rights to services. Smart card readers L are assigned to the providers (such as providers I1 and I2 for instance) or to the beneficiaries (such as the beneficiary b3). The providers"" or the beneficiaries"" readers can be connected by a modem (not represented) and by a telephone line to the service providers and/or to the network of the respective lessors or directly to the lessors, failing any lessors"" network.
The object of the invention is more specifically a control and management system comprising
service beneficiaries"" and/or service providers"" smart cards,
smart card readers fitted on the service sites while the said services are provided,
a central server liable of communicating with the readers,
whereas each reader comprises means for initialising a service transaction when inserting a beneficiary""s and/or provider""s card, means for initialising a service time count after initialisation of the said transaction and until a service ending time, means for recording, periodically on a non-volatile memory, pieces of information relating to the performance of the said services, and means for transmitting the said pieces of information from the reader to the central server.
The pieces of information relating to the performance of a service comprise data identifying and indicating the nature of the service.
The identification data contains:
an identifier of at least one service provider,
an identifier of a beneficiary of the said service,
an identifier of at least one lessor sponsoring the service,
and the data indicating the nature the service contains
the date and the time,
the service duration,
a piece of information significant of the nature of the task corresponding to the service.
The readers are fixed (installed on the service premises) or portable.
The invention will be described more accurately in the case of an organisation whose work is carried out by service providers for beneficiaries, at the beneficiaries"" private homes, and in order to illustrate the said invention correctly, we shall examine the concrete case of a system used for controlling and managing home help work for elderly people.
One of the difficulties encountered in the management of this type of work is the necessity to have several organisation levels with different roles and which must collect the pieces of information matching their levels, while exercising their control; but without interfering with too complex an administration, thereby disturbing the daily operation of the organisation.
Thus, in the case of home help for elderly people, the different parties involved are the beneficiaries, the providers, the entities (associations for instance), supervising the said providers and paying the former, and finally public or private entities that distribute subsidies for this type of work and/or that are entrusted with making sure that the work carried out is paid in compliance with legal terms.